Panners damage $500k infrastructure
KWEKWE City Council has lost more than $500 000 worth of infrastructure through theft and vandalism particularly of water and sewer systems by illegal gold panners, an official has said.
In an interview Kwekwe Mayor, Councillor Matenda Madzoke said the local authority had established that illegal gold miners were vandalising pipes to access water to process the minerals while A1 farmers were diverting water to their farms for irrigation.
“The challenge that we have is that illegal miners are damaging pipes to get water which they are using for gold panning. We assessed the cost last year and it was around $500 000. The vandalism is still going on and the figure has since risen but we are yet to conduct another assessment. We also have farmers who are diverting water to their farms for irrigation purposes. They deliberately burst our sewer lines and then divert the water,” he said.
Clr Madzoke said the cases were rampant in areas where there are illegal mining activities. He said residents should complement the local authority in preserving and maintaining the infrastructure to ensure efficient service delivery.
“Residents have no sense of responsibility and ownership. Most of them think that the infrastructure belongs to the city council and they have no responsibility whatsoever. We are going to embark on a vigorous awareness campaign to educate our residents on the importance of protecting and maintaining our infrastructure to ensure an efficient service delivery. If we neglect our own infrastructure it will definitely affect service delivery. Residents should report any acts of vandalism so that the culprits would be prosecuted,” he said.
Illegal mining activities in Kwekwe are also threatening the gold mining town’s Central Business District (CBD) where panners are using explosives in the tunnels underneath that were left by Globe and Phoenix Mining Company.